1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a medicine feeder which allows discharge of medicines singly.
2. Description of Related Art
Medicines are conventionally housed in cassettes which are contained in a stock shelf in such a way that the cassettes can be pulled out. According to need, the cassettes are pulled out from the stock shelf to discharge appropriate medicines.
However, in the case of using the stock shelf, the location of the cassettes contained therein may affect access to the medicines housed in the cassettes since the medicines should be taken and held from an upper aperture of the pulled-out cassettes. Further, as a quantity of medicines housed in the cassettes is increased, not only the cassettes themselves are hard to pulled out, but also medicines housed on the back side of the cassettes are difficult remove. Further, in the case of a medicine such as anticancer drugs whose administration is strictly restricted, it is not desirable to allow free access to the medicine. However, adopting the structure featuring such solution as locking will deteriorate workability and also require an additional operation to confirm that the medicines are securely locked up.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a medicine feeder which makes it possible to ensure discharge of a prescribed quantity of medicines based on prescription data.